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WORLD CITIZEN LETTER: 518
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WCL 518 July 2006
What Britain needs now
With the so-called 'war on terror' being peddled from Washington to Wyoming and Downing Street to Domingo, there are orgies of newsprint now lavished on the needs of non-terrorist societies. If enabled to choose, what characteristics would you pick for a society? High amongst those most likely to appear are freedom, tolerance, respect, consideration, generosity to strangers. These are not exclusive and above all, they are not exclusively British. They are essentially valuable human qualities and should be required not simply in one country but far more widely.
With a net inpouring of up to a quarter of a million immigrants each year, Britain is engaged in a spate of introspection about what should be done. To import into a country of nearly sixty millions another two and a half million people every decade is bound to lead to problems. If that country is only building a quarter of a million houses during those ten years, the problems will clearly be much greater.
Political leaders who have tried to offer policies to suit the new problems have wandered seeking inspiration. Gordon Brown, the Scottish Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave his thoughts:
'Even before America made it its own, ... Britain can lay claim to the idea of liberty. There is ... a golden thread which runs through British history - from Runnymede in 1215, on through the Bill of Rights in 1689, when Britain became the first country to assert the power of Parliament over the king, to not just one but four great reform acts in less than 100 years - of the individual standing firm against tyranny and then - an even more generous, expansive view of liberty - the idea of government accountable to the people.'
But his ideas are seen by critics as partisan - designed to bolster his own position as an aspiring prime minister in England where his fellow-Scots are now suspected of having undue rights, privileges and influence.
What escapes the notice of the politicians here is that you can't square the circle of British sensibilities by relying on the patterns of an outdated nationalism. Britain evolved a culture, based largely on the English language and hammered out a way of living within the British Isles, whilst watching other societies in Europe which resembled the verse:
There once were two cats from Kilkenny
Each thought there was one cat too many
So they fought and they fit
And they scratched and they bit
And instead of two cats, there ain't any!
But if it is indeed too late to go back to the earlier land of a largely homogeneous British culture (which included and accepted the lively sub-cultures in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the regions), what is the alternative? With towns like Leicester half Muslim, suburbs like Southall largely Indian, little Chinatowns, acres of Polish settlements, enclaves of Somalis, Nigerians, Zimbabweans, to say nothing of the long-settled Kenyan Asians and clumps of Australians, New Zealanders and others from earlier migrations, what makes sense?
What is worth proclaiming is Tony Blair's avowed intention to put Britain in the heart of Europe. It is still worthwhile but only if in a Europe that aims to create a new and better world. What our new British must see themselves is as world citizens. Their place in Britain needs to be one where the enclaves of Albanians, Czechs, Rumanians, Serbs and other Europeans are equally at home in a land whose older immigrant groups accept their citizenship not only of Britain and Europe but of the whole as a whole.
So the leaders of the communities that immigrants to Britain have created since their arrival need to recognize their prime task. That is not to manage diverse religious faiths, skin colour, ethic origins, imported culture and political baggage enforcing a precarious balancing act. Instead they must appreciate that world citizenship can embrace all these without difficulty, because only with world views can such diversity be integrated and welcomed.
John Roberts
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